Strategical war game apparatus



Dec. 13, 1 960 L. w. MOSES 2,964,323

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ATTORNEYS INVENTOR United States Patent STRATEGICAL WAR GAME APPARATUS Louis W. Moses, 3256 Queenstown Drive, Mount Rainier, Md.

Filed Apr. 1, 1955, Ser. No. 498,651

3 Claims. (Cl. 273-134) This invention relates to amusements and more particu larly to a strategical war game apparatus, the playing of which combines both chance and skill and serving to provide a game which is amusing and instructive in both young and old.

Games involving the manipulation of military forces and the simulation of war conditions seem to have a great appeal, particularly where the manipulation of such forces involve more than mere chance and the appeal of such games is further enhanced by the inclusion of various modern branches of the armed services. It is also advantageous to provide a game of this nature which may be played by two, three or four persons, rather than a game which may be limited to two or four persons. Fur thermore, a game which involves both chance and intelligence would tend to provide more even competition and consequently, such game may be played by old and young alike without a material advantage falling to the older player.

It is accordingly an object of this invention to provide a strategical War game apparatus involving both chance and intelligence and in which various branches of the armed services are manipulated in accordance with the wishes of the players and to an extent determined by a chance device, such as a pair of dice.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a strategical war game apparatus including a game board,

2,964,323 Patented Dec. 13, 1960 decorative manner to provide the various spaces and course to be followed during the playing of the game. If desired, of course, the printing may be directly on the board rather than on a sheet of paper or other material attached thereto.

The board 10 is provided on the upper surface thereof,

I by printing or any other suitable means, with a border composed of a plurality of generally rectangular spaces 11 and the space in the upper right hand corner of the board, as indicated on Fig. 1B and as shown at 12, may contain indicia 13 indicating the starting point and with arrows 14 indicating the direction of movement of the marker pieces in a manner to be later described. The remaining spaces 11 of the border contain representations of soldiers, tanks and airplanes arranged in a haphazard sequence and the purpose of such representations will be presently described. In order to facilitate the description, the representation of soldiers may be designated 15, the tanks 16 and the airplanes 17.

Disposed within the border formed by the spaces 11 in the board 10, is a serpentine course 18, made up of three divided lanes 19, 20 and 21, and such lanes are divided into a plurality of player piece spaces 22. The serpentine course 18 terminates at one end 23 in two goals which may be designated as rough riders capital 24 and as leathernecks capital 25. These two capitals will be player pieces, marker pieces and a pack of communique I cards indicating moves to be made by the players.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a strategical war game apparatus which may be conveniently utilized by young and old alike and which provide a game involving both chance and intelligence and in which the rules of play are relatively simple and easily understandable.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a strategical war game apparatus including a game board which may be clearly illustrated in a decorative manner and in which the various moves to be made are clearly indicated on such board.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing wherein:

ing a tank;

Fig. 3, a side elevational view of a player piece simulating a soldier;

Fig. 4, a side elevational view of a player piece simulating an airplane;

Fig. 5, a view showing a pair of dice; and

represented in contrasting colors, such as red, for the rough riders capital and gray for the leathernecks capital and represent a goal for players moving toward the same from the opposite end of the serpentine path 18. Adjacent the end 23 of the serpentine course 18 there is provided a rough riders base 26 and a leathernecks base 27, these bases being in the same colors as the corresponding capitals and adjacent the bases is a starting space 28 for both the rough riders and the leathernecks.

Adjacent the opposite end 29 of the serpentine course 18 is a foreign legion capital 30, which may be colored black and a commando capital 31 which may be colored brown. Adjacent the end 29 of the serpentine course is a foreign legion base 32, a commando base 33 and a starting space 34 for the foreign legion and commandos. The foreign legion base and the commando base are colored to correspond with the colors of the corresponding capitals.

It should be noted, that the lane 19 of the serpentine course 18, contains at spaced intervals, representations 17 of airplanes, while the lane 20 contains representations 15 of soldiers and lane 21 representations 16 of tanks. Furthermore, the spaces 22 of the serpentine course 18 are printed with instructions as to movements by players landing thereon and adjacent the end 23 of the serpentine course 18, are a plurality of penalty spaces 35 with indicia in each one, and likewise, adjacent the end 29 of the serpentine course 18, are a plurality of similar penalty spaces 36.

Centrally of the board 10 is a generally rectangular space 37 designated communique and which is intended to receive a stack of 18 communique cards, each card bearing instructions as to moves for a player selecting a communique card.

The game apparatus of this invention also includes player pieces in the form of tanks 38, as shown in Fig. 2, soldiers 39, as shown in Fig. 3, and airplanes 40, as shown in Fig. 4, as well as a pair of dice 41, as shown in Fig. 5, and marker pieces 42, as shown in Fig. 6. One set of player pieces including a plurality of tanks, soldiers and airplanes will be provided for each player and such pieces will be colored to agree with the corresponding bases and capitals. Likewise, marker pieces 42 will be provided in corresponding colors for each player.

In playing the game of this invention, it is first necessary for each player to obtain a sufficient force of arms in order to start moving toward the enemies capital. A minimum force of arms is considered to be, at least one soldier, one tank and one airplane. In the beginning the marker pieces 42 of each player are placed in the starting space 12 of the border and each player in turn, casts the dice 41 and moves his marker piece 42 a corresponding number of spaces 11 in the border of the board 10. Wherever the marker piece 42 lands, indicates the particular arm that the player adds to his force by that particular move. Each player casts the dice until, in this manner he has accumulated a sutficient force of arms to start the game. As each arm is obtained the same is placed in the base corresponding to that particular player. For instance, assuming that a rough rider is playing, the arms obtained by him will be placed in the rough riders base 26 and when a sufficient force of arms has been accumulated, the rough rider will start the game from the starting space 28 on the serpentine course 13. Thereafter, the rough rider will move the number of spaces towards his opponents capital indicated by the dice and prior to casting such dice, each player will indicate which arm he desires to move at that particular time. For instance, rough rider will state that he elects to move his airplane and will thereafter cast the dice and move his airplane in the lane 19, the number of spaces indicated by the dice. Should a players piece, be it tank, airplane or soldier, land in a space 21 occupied by the player piece of another player, then that player piece is captured and removed from the game. However, if a player occupying a space has more than one piece in said space, he captures the piece of the player landing in his occupied space. Likewise, when a player piece lands in a space 21 in which there are directions, the appropriate player will follow such directions. The player may land in a space designated communique, in which case he will select a communique card from the stack 37 and follow the directions thereon. Also the player may land in a space which indicates that he should move to one of the penalty spaces 35 or 36 and he must remain in these penalty spaces until the last arm of the particular type then being played, be it airplane, soldier or tank, has been moved into play from his base. At that time, the player piece may be removed from the penalty space and placed in the appropriate base space. If at any time during the game, a players arms are reduced to less than one of each type of arm, he may then stop movement on the serpentine course 18 and obtain additional arms by moving his player piece 42 in the spaces 11 of the border. The additional arms which may be obtained are then moved into play from the appropriate base and starting space.

A rough rider player as well as a leatherneck player moves from starting point 28 toward the foreign legion and commando capitals while a foreign legion player as well as a commando player move from the starting point 34 toward the rough rider and leather neck capitals.

The object of the game is for each player to capture his opponents capital and this is accomplished when one player piece representing each branch of the armed services, or in other words, when a tank, soldier and airplane has been moved into the opponents capital, such capital is considered as captured and the game ends.

Two, three or four people may play the game of this invention and the players start from opposite ends of the board moving toward their opponents capital and along the way they may capture opponents player pieces representing his force of arms and may thereby prevent further movement by the opponent until he has acquired an additional force of arms by moving his marker piece around the spaces on the border of the board. Since each player must elect which player piece he will move prior to casting the dice, this represents the determination of strategy on his part and, of course, may be determined by the particular location of his player pieces on the serpentine course 18. After electing which arm to move, the further play in that particular sequence is governed entirely by chance upon casting the dice.

It will be seen that by the above described invention, there has been provided a relatively simple, yet highly entertaining game which is appealing to young and old alike, particularly in view of the fact, that the play involves both intelligence and chance and consequently, each player has substantially an equal opportunity to win the game. Also, the game apparatus of this invention may be provided in pleasing colors and the player pieces in highly realistic shapes and likewise, the board as well as the player pieces may be economically constructed for sale in a highly competitive market.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made in the invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof and therefore the invention is not limited by that which is shown in the. drawing and described in the specification, but only as I indicated in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A strategical war game apparatus comprising a plurality of sets of pieces, each set including a plurality of player pieces depicting different branches of the armed services, such as soldiers, tanks and airplanes, each set also including a marker piece, each set being of a contrasting color, a pair of dice, a pack of communique cards bearing player instructions and a game board of generally rectangular shape, said board having a border consisting of a plurality of generally rectangular spaces extending around said board adjacent the outer edge thereof, one of said spaces having indicia indicating the starting point and direction of movement of said marker pieces, each of the remaining spaces having a representation of one of said player pieces arranged in haphazard sequence, a serpentine course on said board within said border, said course being divided into a plurality of lanes providing one lane for each type of player piece, a representation of each type of player piece on the appropriate lane at spaced intervals, said course being divided into a succession of player piece spaces extending from one end to the other of said course, player instruction indicia in certain of said player piece spaces, goal areas of contrasting colors at opposite ends of said course providing opponents goals, base areas of contrasting colors adjacent opposite ends of said course providing opponents bases, the colors of said goal and base areas corresponding to the colors of said sets of pieces, indicia on said board adjacent said base areas indicating the starting points for said player pieces, a plurality of penalty spaces adjacent opposite ends of said course and a centrally disposed substantially rectangular space on said board for receiving said pack of communique cards, movement of said player pieces or said marker pieces being determined by throws of said dice, by said instruction indicia and by instructions on said communique cards.

2. A strategical war game apparatus comprising a plurality of sets of pieces, each set including a plurality of player pieces depicting different branches of the armed services, such as soldiers, tanks and airplanes, each set also including a marker piece, each set being of a contrasting color, a pair of dice, a pack of communique cards bearing player instructions and a game'board, said board having a border consisting of a plurality of spaces extending around said board, one of said spaces having indicia indicating the starting point and direction of movement of said marker pieces, each of the remaining spaces having a representation of one of said player pieces arranged in haphazard sequence, an elongated course on said board within said border, said course being divided into a plurality of lanes providing one lane for each type of player piece, a representation of each type of player piece on the appropriate lane at spaced intervals, said course being divided into a succession of player piece spaces extending from one end to the other of said course, player instruction indicia in certain of said player piece spaces, goal areas of contrasting colors at opposite ends of said course providing opponents goals, base areas of contrasting colors adjacent opposite ends of said course providing opponents bases, the colors of said goal and base areas corresponding to the colors of said sets of pieces, indicia on said board adjacent said base areas indicating the starting points for said player pieces, a plurality of penalty spaces adjacent opposite ends of said course and a centrally disposed space on said board for receiving said pack of communique cards, movement of said player pieces or said marker pieces being determined by throws of said dice, by said instruction indicia and by instructions on said communique cards.

3. A strategical war game apparatus comprising a plurality of sets of pieces, each set including a plurality of player pieces depicting different branches of the armed services, such as soldiers, tanks and airplanes, each set also including a marker piece, each set being of a contrasting color, a pair of dice, a pack of communique cards bearing player instructions and a game board, said board having a border consisting of a plurality of spaces extending around said board, one of said spaces having indicia indicating the starting point and direction of movemerit of said marker pieces, each of the remaining spaces having a representation of one of said player pieces arranged in haphazard sequence, an elongated course on said board within said border, said course being divided into a plurality of lanes providing one lane for each type of player piece, said course being divided into a succession of player piece spaces extending from one end to the other of said course, player instruction indicia on certain of said player piece spaces, goal areas of contrasting colors at opposite ends of said course providing opponents goals, base areas of contrasting colors adjacent opposite ends of said course providing opponents bases, the colors of said goal and base areas corresponding to the colors of said sets of pieces, indicia on said board adjacent said base areas indicating the starting points for said player pieces, a plurality of penalty spaces adjacent opposite ends of said course and a centrally disposed space on said board for receiving said pack of communique cards, movement of said player pieces or said marker pieces being determined by throws of said dice, by said instructions indicia and by instructions on said communique cards.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,315,483 Edwards Sept. 9, 1919 1,545,891 Gelpi July 14, 1925 1,666,953 Tuttle Apr. 24, 1928 2,177,078 Raizen Oct. 24, 1939 2,178,330 Thomas Oct. 31, 1939 2,316,862 Haggard et a1. Apr. 20, 1943 

